The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for transferring yarn packages exiting the transport assembly of a yarn processing machine and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for orienting yarn packages for sliding movement, sliding the packages to a removal position and transferring the packages therefrom to a location for further handling.
Typically, yarn packages from winding machines, rotor spinning machines and double twist machines are transported to a central package packing station and, for such transportation, the yarn packages are carried on their side by belts running the length of the machines which carry the packages to the end of the machines. Another transport apparatus then transports the yarn packages from the end of the machines to another location for further handling.
The transport apparatus which transports the yarn packages to the new location is typically at a height sufficient to permit persons to walk freely underneath. Accordingly, the yarn packages collected at the end of the machine must be raised to the transport apparatus and a vertical conveyor or other lift-type apparatus to accomplish such raising of the yarn packages has been proposed, for example, in German Patent No. 33 34 977. The apparatus disclosed therein includes hooks on an endless belt on which the cores of full packages are inserted. A mechanism raises each full package to a position adjacent the endless belt in which the next available hook moves into the package core as it travels by the mechanism. However, the degree and complexity of the components for such a system are relatively burdensome and difficulties easily arise if the raising mechanism is not exactly synchronized with the hooks and if the packages are not precisely delivered to the proper height at which the hooks can engage and remove them from the lift mechanism.